By: Fr. Malachi MartinIn Martin's apocalyptic scenario, Pope John Paul II is a geopolitican whose aim is a new world order, the Grand Design of God on earth, a global government rooted in a recognition of universal interdependence. The other chief players in the "millennium end-game" are "hardcore Leninist" Gorbachev, bent on world domination, and the West's rulers, said to be eager to maintain the status quo as they condone "sinful structures" such as Third World exploitation. Martin ( The Jesuits ) contends that the Pope has allowed the Church to split into politicized factions and willfully ignores "rampant decadence and unfaith" among churchmen. He spins a dramatic tale in this long, unpersuasive saga, which purports to be a behind-the-scenes probe of the Vatican's role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain.